News Round-Up

• “Nigel Farage set to be only candidate in Clacton by-election” – Nigel Farage is set to be the only candidate from a major party to stand in the upcoming Clacton by-election after the Tories and Labour confirmed they would boycott the vote, reports the Mail. Can he beat Count Binface?
• “Why has Nigel Farage resigned? To seize control of the narrative” – Nigel Farage’s by-election gamble was meant to outmanoeuvre his critics and seize the narrative, but a cross-party boycott may have turned it into an embarrassing own goal, says Nick Gutteridge in the Telegraph.
• “Behind the Partridge-esque bluster, Nigel Five-Mil looks a worried man” – The Reform UK leader’s resignation speech was less The Thick of It, more Last of the Summer Whine, writes Ed Cumming in the Telegraph.
• “Who governs Britain? That is what’s at stake in Farage’s by-election” – Exasperated with the establishment, the Reform leader has instigated what amounts to a battle for the soul of the country, says Isabel Oakeshott in the Telegraph.
• “Trump backs Farage as Reform leader faces questions over finances” – Donald Trump has endorsed Farage’s claim that he is the victim of an “establishment hit job”, reports the Mail.
• “UK to toughen up political donation rules in latest crackdown” – Political donors will be required to wait a year after returning to the UK before giving more than £100,000, under newly proposed rules that threaten to hit Reform UK, says Bloomberg.
• “What we learnt from Prince Harry’s High Court battle with the Mail” – From revelations about royal family dynamics to candid courtroom disclosures, the Times provides the key takeaways from Harry’s High Court clash.
• “All the times Prince Harry’s evidence was contradicted in court” – Despite the judge stopping short of accusing Harry of lying, a detailed account by Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph reveals the numerous occasions when his testimony was contradicted during the trial.
• “I was a witness in Prince Harry’s phone hacking case” – The accusations against me were ludicrous, but the Duke did not care who he hurt in his crusade against the press, says Nicole Lampert in the Telegraph.
• “Prince Harry defiant in defeat, but his life’s work lies in ruins” – Prince Harry put on a brave face after losing his £50 million legal battle, but his dream of taking on the tabloids is in tatters, writes Hannah Furness in the Telegraph.
• “Baroness Lawrence was the true victim in Harry’s hacking case” – Prince Harry charged into his doomed court battle with Associated Newspapers with all the fanaticism of a kamikaze pilot – but Baroness Lawrence may be left wondering how she ever got caught up in a fight that was never hers to begin with, says Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph.
• “It’s time to remove Harry from the line of succession” – With the Duke of Sussex having stepped back from royal duties in 2021 and taxpayers still liable for costs associated with his position, the case for removing him from the line of succession entirely is now overwhelming, argues Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
• “Burnham needs £120 billion of tax rises to avoid crisis” – Britain faces a debt crunch unless the next PM cuts spending or dramatically raises taxes, reports the Telegraph.
• “It’s painful to say, but an income tax raid is Burnham’s best option” – Despite Labour’s manifesto pledge against raising income tax, the Telegraph’s Jeremy Warner says it remains a less damaging route than targeting wealth creation in the search for a fiscal fix.
• “OBR warns minimum wage workers could end up paying 40% tax rate” – The Treasury’s fiscal watchdog has raised the stark prospect of minimum wage workers being dragged into the 40% tax band, according to the Mail.
• “Labour’s tinpot free speech crackdown” – In the Spectator, Gareth Roberts says Britain’s hard-won freedoms – achieved by reformers and free thinkers long dead – are to be ended not by legions of brutes rolling down Regent Street in tanks, but by a gaggle of gormless supply teachers.
• “Rochdale grooming gang leader must be deported” – Baroness Casey has demanded that ministers do everything in their power to deport the Pakistan-born ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang, according to the Telegraph.
• “Starmer heads for a kicking from Trump at his final NATO summit” – Sir Keir Starmer is attending what may be his final NATO summit, and a bruising encounter with Donald Trump awaits, says the Mail.
• “How Britain let Europe down on defence” – Britain’s arms expenditure has grown by less than 35% since NATO spending goals were introduced, while most other member states have more than matched their targets, notes Joe Barnes in the Telegraph.
• “Marine Le Pen is ordered to wear an electronic tag” – A French appeals court has handed Marine Le Pen a one-year term with an ankle tag over a fake jobs scam in the European Parliament, casting doubt on whether she will be able to run for president next April, according to the Mail.
• “Did the NY Times whitewash allegations of sexual misconduct against hero-of-the-Left Graham Platner?” – On his Substack, Alex Berenson asks whether the New York Times buried allegations of sexual misconduct against Left-wing Maine senatorial candidate Graham Platner.
• “The three-word chant that demolishes the case for peace with Iran” – Mourners screaming “Death to America” at the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proves it‘s pointless to try to appease the Tehran regime, says Jake Wallis Simons in the Telegraph.
• “Is the conversion therapy bill really worth £783 million?” – The Cabinet Office’s impact assessment of the Government’s conversion therapy ban projects £783 million in benefits over 10 years – but the assumptions underpinning that figure are far shakier than they appear, writes John Armstrong in the Spectator.
• “Three in four London jobs ‘at risk from AI’” – A new report identifies London as the most exposed city in the developed world to an AI-driven jobs bloodbath, says This is Money.
• “Do doctors think tax rises shouldn’t apply to them?” – NHS consultants seem to think they ought to be compensated for the tax increases which are paying their salaries and pensions, writes Ross Clark in the Spectator.
• “Grid operator accused of cover-up over blackout threat” – Britain’s grid operator has been accused of covering up system failures that threaten to trigger blackouts, according to the Telegraph.
• “Climate ruling could make all North Sea drilling illegal” – Senior judges, including the former Lord Chief Justice, have warned that a new climate litigation ruling could render all North Sea drilling an illegal act, reports the Times.
• “Miliband’s heat pump revolution leaves taxpayers in the cold” – In the Spectator, Steerpike notes that Ed Miliband’s heat pump subsidies cost taxpayers and bill-payers £498.6 million in 2025/26, with new analysis of Government data confirming the renewables market remains entirely dependent on state support.
• “How climate storytelling is being embedded into ITV and BBC productions” – On her Substack, Charlotte Gill exposes the organisations systematically embedding climate narratives into ITV and BBC productions, revealing who is bankrolling the push for environmental storytelling.
• “Greens to charge employers for offering free staff parking” – Employers could face charges of up to £1,250 a year for Bristol city-centre car parks under Green Party plans designed to push workers out of their cars and onto greener forms of transport, says GB News.
• “How the family car became the preserve of the wealthy” – Soaring costs and Government policy are combining to price ordinary families out of car ownership, warns Joe Wright in the Telegraph.
• “Oil and gas prices rise after tanker hit by missile in Strait of Hormuz” – Brent crude climbed 1.4% to $73 a barrel after a missile struck a liquefied natural gas tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, according to CNBC.
• “Female pool player’s discrimination case against professional body” – A pool player who spearheaded demands for biological men to be banned from female competitions claims she has been excluded from tournaments because of her gender-critical stance, says the Mail.
• “The shame of Pride” – In the Spectator, Brendan O’Neill writes that the rainbow-coloured Pride movement, which claims to champion tolerance, proved shockingly intolerant of Jews.
• “An attack on all our rights” – On his Substack, Dr David McGrogan argues that the human rights activist complex fundamentally misunderstands its own subject.
• “Give the young reason to be proud of Britain” – With the nation state making a comeback, it is now vital to engender genuine patriotism among a sceptical Gen Z, says Munira Mirza in the Times.
• “On 2nd June I raised concerns about the security of our electricity grid. I was told by Ed Miliband that I was scaremongering” – Claire Couthino in the Commons reveals that she’s been contacted by a whistleblower who has confirmed her fears are well-founded.

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